Introduction
Totaler Krieg! (TK) is a wargame covering the European Theater of World War II from 1937 to V-E Day. Players command the Axis, Soviet, and Western factions.
TK is the sister game to Dai Senso! (DS), which covers the Pacific Theater. The two may be played together as a combined game called Axis Empires (AE).
Rulebook Structure
Don’t let the length of the rulebook intimidate you. First, you won’t need to memorize the whole thing to play, as it’s been written so you can look up the rules as you go. Also, the book contains many clarifications, examples, and design notes that appear in gray text boxes just like this one. These should help explain things as you read.
If this is your first time with TK, we’ve come up with some training scenarios that will help you learn as you play. Stop here for now and read “Playing TK for the First Time” in the scenario book
This is the TK “Living Rules” rulebook. Text that appears in red ink (such as you see here) indicates an item that has been corrected or changed since the published TK rulebook.
The TK rulebook is divided into several sections:
- Introduction: That’s the section you’re reading now.
- Game Components: A list of what comes with the game and what the pieces mean.
- Core Game Mechanics – Sections 0-7: These rules define the mechanics you will perform during the course of a Game Turn. Not all rules are performed every Game Turn. For ease of reference, rules 0 through 7 are presented in the same numerical order that they are performed in during the Sequence of Play.
Example: If you are playing Step 5 of the Sequence of Play (Reserve Movement), you’ll find Rules Section 5 in this book directly corresponds to that step.
- Housekeeping Rules – Sections 8–13: These are rules that apply throughout the game, but do not fall strictly within the Sequence of Play.
- Look-Up Rules – Sections 14–16: These rules explain the effects of specific markers, Political Events and Conditional Events that may occur. They’re called “Look-Up” rules because you should look them up as you play.
Look-up events are often italicized and cross-referenced when they appear to help you find them quicker.
- Designers Notes: Some musings about the design philosophy behind this edition of TK.
How to Read the Rules
Please don’t ignore this section – we know you can read and mean no insult. We just want to clarify some of the vernacular before we go any further.
While reading the rules, do not infer or imagine more to a rule than is stated in it. When in doubt, interpret strictly. Treat any game event that is impossible to fulfill given current game conditions as a “No Result.” That is, nothing happens and the players continue play.
Example: An event instructs the Western faction to roll on the Area Table: Central. The die roll comes up 2, which is Austria. But Austria no longer exists because the Axis faction successfully played its card 10 Demand Austria and incorporated Austria into Germany. The result is therefore treated as No Result.
If an option card provides instructions based on a certain die roll result, and that card doesn’t list what happens if that result does not occur, then the event is treated as No Result.
Example: The Conditional Event for Western card 7a Western Guarantees instructs you to count the German markers in the Ceded Lands Box and roll one die. The card says: “If the result is less than or equal to the count, apply Military Aid.” It does not say what happens if you roll greater than the count – so the default applies, which is to treat it as No Result.
Most rules state items in the singular form. For example, “a German ground unit.” Unless a specific number is cited, the rule applies from one to any number of the stated item.
In other words, “a” doesn’t mean “just one.” When we say “one,” that’s when we mean a single item.
“Can” or “cannot” indicates whether or not an action is allowed.
“If” indicates that as long as the criteria are true, then the specified effect and/or restriction described applies. If the listed criteria are not true, then what follows does not apply.
“May” indicates the player has the option to do something; thus, he has the choice to perform an action, he is not forced to do so and may treat the result as No Result instead.
“Must” indicates the player has no choice; that action must be performed unless otherwise prohibited or impossible to do given current game circumstances. If the player is presented a list of options that he “must” select from, he must select an option that can be performed.
You can’t avoid a bad event by picking an option that is impossible to fulfill and then claim a No Result.
A country’s name indicates the stated item that follows must belong only to that country.
Example: “German ground unit” refers to any ground unit belonging to Germany only and not another Axis country.
A faction’s name indicates the stated item that follows must belong to that faction.
Example: “Western Air units” refers to any Air unit belonging to any country aligned with the Western faction.
A note about TK, DS, and AE: As much as possible, these three games all use the same rules. Where there are exceptions, they will be noted as follows:
* Rules and counters that are not used in the AE combined game – i.e., that apply to TK only – will be preceded by an asterisk.
© Rules that apply only to the AE combined game will be preceded by a © symbol.
△ Rules that are handled differently in TK than they are in DS are preceded by a triangle. When you are playing AE, be sure to use the section that applies to the map in question.
If you know how to play DS, you pretty much already know how to play TK – but look for the asterisks and triangles to see the important differences.